Listen To Your Heart

A Message from Dr. Stephen Kindred – Assistant Vice President, Corporate Medical

February marks the 10th year of the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women® movement – 10 years of fighting to save women’s lives from heart disease. Although progress has been made over the last decade, heart disease is still the number one killer of women in the United States.

Heart disease can result in a heart attack. That’s why it’s important to recognize the warning signs of an attack. As with men, women’s most common symptom of a heart attack is chest pain or discomfort, which may come and go. Yet women can experience an attack without any chest pain and display other signs, such as:

• Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach
• Shortness of breath, with or without chest pain
• Break out of cold sweat, nausea, lightheadedness or fainting

Even though heart disease is a serious concern for women, some of my female patients blame symptoms of a heart attack on less life-threatening conditions like acid reflux, the flu, or normal aging. Robin, Senior Bank Technician at Corporate, did just that on April 17, 2012. “As soon as I came into work that morning, I had a really strange pain in the center of my chest. I just thought it was heart burn or indigestion,” says Robin. “I sat at my desk and it went away, so I wasn’t worried.”

As the morning progressed, Robin continued to experience sporadic chest pain. After lunch, she began feeling very strange. “I started sweating and felt faint,” admits Robin. “Thank goodness I was with my daughter and she called for the medics.” It turns out Robin suffered from a “widow maker” heart attack, but luckily she received emergency treatment that saved her life.

Although Robin had no history of heart disease, she was a little overweight and being treated for high blood pressure at the time of her heart attack. Although she is grateful to be alive, she didn’t take her fortune for granted and started making healthy lifestyle changes such as exercising five times a week for 30 minutes, reducing her sodium intake, eating smaller food portions, including fruits and vegetables in her daily diet and reading food labels. “I have since lost 30 pounds, lowered my total cholesterol (including my bad cholesterol) and have reduced both the number and dosage of my prescription medicines,” says Robin.

Robin has taken great strides to prevent a future heart attack. But just as important, she now knows the other signs of an attack and to seek immediate emergency assistance if symptoms arise again.

Don’t risk your heart – listen to it! Empowering you to Live Well, Be Well.

Additional Resources

Learn more about the Prevention and Treatment of Heart Attack from the American Heart Association.

Mayo Clinic offers 5 Medication-Free Strategies to Prevent Heart Disease.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics can help you understand how Heart Health and Diet go hand in hand. Start eating right today!